Friendship

C/By: Kenjaje

Edited/Revised by: raVen

(Phase also created by raVen)

Chapter 7: Deceit

"Now I'm not even hungry anymore…" Lilo groaned lifting the oily piece of pizza she had on her plate. The smell of melted cheese and steaming pepperoni, mixed in with the slight shimmer on the slice, didn't appeal to her—not after what they were just thrown in to.

"All right, I'll do that. Bye." Cobra said, hanging up the phone.

"How much trouble are we in?" Lilo asked, her tone low.

"I've convinced Nani to stay at the luau; she'll talk with you when she gets home. Until then she said to separate you three and keep an eye on you."

"Kataba no-gata!" Stitch retorted, exclaiming their innocence again.

"We really didn't," Lilo pleaded, "honest!"

"Well, if you didn't, who did? You're the only one's in the house." Cobra reasoned.

"But…we were upstairs…" Angel explained.

"Yeah…Stitch and me were playing checkers…" Lilo chimed in, "and I was winning…" She added softly.

"Ah, naga." Stitch countered. "Stitch winning."

"I'm sorry Lilo, but I can only go with what I have. You three claim to have been upstairs, but I don't know that for sure."

"But you also can't prove we were down here either!" Lilo stated logically. Bubbles looked away, aware that she was actually correct; he only had circumstantial evidence, but he could only do as Nani instructed.

"I'll explain what happened to Nani later, when she's not busy…until then you three are separated. After dinner I'll assign your rooms." All three of them glared straight ahead, their elbows on the table and their heads resting in their hands. Cobra sighed. "Look, Lilo, even if it wasn't you, it still might be a good idea to separate. I know that plasma from a blaster doesn't appear out of nowhere—" He looked toward the taped-up window, with a little added saliva from Stitch and Angel "—and if there's something wrong here, I'd feel a lot safer if you three weren't easy to get to."

"Appeared out of nowhere…what do you mean by that?" Angel asked curiously. Cobra pulled out a chair and sat down patiently. He hadn't exactly told them of the experience.

"That plasma shot came from somewhere in the kitchen. When I looked, no one was there, and no blaster was there, and no one could have gotten in or out quickly enough, except you two."

Stitch's eyes wandered as Cobra looked at him and Angel. He looked beyond the dark man to the window, and his eyes caught something—some kind of figure in the corner, looking in; there was a slight orange glimmer on it though, which made him squint. He turned and tapped Angel and pointed for her to see, but when she looked nothing was there. She shrugged at his expression, while he looked at the window with confusion.

" I don't know if I exactly suspect you two," Cobra continued, "because I doubt you would do such a thing…but for right now this is what I have to go by. Unless someone had teleported in and out, there's nothing I can do." He finished sarcastically. Lilo's eyes bolted open.

"That's it! That's exactly it!" She contradicted hastily. "Someone did teleport!"

"…Lilo, this is no time for games."

"No, no game. There's another experiment here…her name is Phase, and she can teleport." Cobra's eyebrow lifted. "Really." Lilo said, as if that would somehow miraculously make him believe her.

"Then where is Phase now?" He asked. Lilo lost her zeal; Cobra was only thinking she was making up a story.

"…Good question…" She said rhetorically.

"I'm sorry Lilo, but I'm afraid blaming something like this on another experiment isn't a good excuse." Lilo didn't move; she merely flattened her eyelids, unable to believe his quick disbelief. She almost felt angry at Phase; whatever the cousin was doing it wasn't funny.

"Well fine. Even though the it's the truth." She said, finishing in an undertone. "I'm not hungry; I'm going to my room." She said, getting up.

"Nani wants you in your other room." Cobra said. Lilo sighed.

"Ok, fine. Can I change into my PJ's first, though?" She requested.

"Sure."

"I think I'll just go ahead and go upstairs too…" Angel said.

"Stitch three…"

"All right, I guess I'll take you all to your rooms then. And, if I see this Phase, she'll have a lot of explaining to do when Nani gets home." He said, as he followed the three upstairs.

Angel sat on her bed, up in the tower, kicking her feet against the bottom of the mattress, sighing with boredom. Stitch and Lilo were a floor below; Stitch in Nani's room, Lilo in her old room. They weren't allowed out, except for if they had to go to the bathroom, but they had to check with Cobra first, and they could only be out in the hall one at a time.

"I really just don't get it…" She said aloud, hopping down. "What's going on with Phase? Did she really try to shoot Cobra like Lilo thinks, or was it some kind of accident?" Angel shook her head. She was asking questions that only Phase would be able to answer—if it was even Phase at all.

Boredom was sinking further in. She had only spent five minutes in solitude and already she was going crazy trying to look for something to occupy her time. The checkers game was still out; she decided to pick it up. Slowly she gathered all the pieces, drying the ones that Stitch used his tongue to move, and finally folded the board and put the lid on the box. She took the game and went to the closet, jumped onto the wall and climbed to the top, and when she got there, she was met with a pair of black eyes, looking at her in the shadows.

"What the-" She flinched back, losing her grip on the wall from the unexpected encounter. The checkers and board fell to the ground with a loud clash of plastic and cardboard. Angel managed to land on her feet, and looked up at the top shelf in the closet, where Phase sat. "How long have you been up there?"

"Since you came." She replied casually. Angel felt a sudden ping of dread; that meant she heard everything. Phase sensed that ping also. "What was that about me shooting someone?" She inquired, jumping off the shelf and down to the floor.

"There's a man downstairs dressed in black, his name is Cobra Bubbles." Angel stood firmly as she spoke."Lilo thinks you teleported in, knocked on the door, turned up the volume on the T.V., and then shot at him with a blaster. Tell me that's not true." Angel demanded. Phase nodded understandingly.

"It wasn't—honest." Angel gave her a look; she couldn't tell whether or not to believe her. She sounded honest, but then again the events seemed to counter her words. "Look, I haven't been here for the past while. I've been following something…"

"Following something?"

"Yeah. When Stitch told me to come wait up here, I teleported, but I missed and wound up outside. I was going to take another shot at it, but then I saw something. I didn't know what it was, so I went after it, but it disappeared." Angel went to sit down on her bed.

"And so you've been chasing it this whole time?" She asked, her tone unbelieving.

"Yes…I've been looking everywhere but I couldn't find it."

"Why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't want it to get away—it seemed dangerous." Phase explained, her tone countering the stolid tone of Angel's. "I'll bet it's what fired the blaster—not me. I swear! …I can even take you where I saw it, and take you where I chased it if you like." Angel's eyes lifted; either she was desperate for lying or she wasn't lying at all.

"All right. But we have to make this quick…Cobra makes rounds, and if I'm gone, I'm in for it."

"Ok. Do you think we should get Stitch and Lilo?"

"No…if we're all gone we'll be in deeper trouble than if I just left." Phase smiled, but it seemed odd to Angel.

"Good. Don't worry; it'll only take a second. Kamiga ja-ja." She motioned, opening up the window.

"Can't we just use your powers to get down there?" Angel asked, crawling through.

"I'm wasted; used it all up trying to chase after that thing." Phase replied with a whisper. Angel kept her eye on Phase while she climbed down; she seemed a bit jittery, anxious even. She had a slight tremble in her manner. She looked up, and noticed Angel's look. "I'm afraid of heights…" She explained with a mumble.

The ground shuffled twice with a small thump as Phase and Angel dropped the last foot; Angel took a look around. The sky was ablaze with gilded clouds toward the half-set sun, which made the shadows on the ground stretch across the orange-hued grass. The trees in the woods ahead were brightened at their tops, but lower down, where the leaves fanned out, was shrouded in a cool shadow.

Phase pointed, and walked in that direction, keeping out of sight of the windows. She led Angel to the calmly shaded woods, but not very deep. They stopped at a clearing only half a minute or so after they entered, and Phase glanced around to make sure she was in the right place.

"This is where I ended up." Phase told her.

"Wow…you really goofed that one up. I thought you only missed the room by a bit…" Angel commented jokingly. Phase shrugged the comment off as though she didn't hear it, or didn't care about it. Angel found it odd—she had been very defensive about her powers all day; the sudden change in attitude struck Angel's instincts, but she ignored them.

"And that's where I saw the thing. It was really dark, almost black, and it seemed hunched over."

"It was probably an animal…" Angel said. "You've probably never seen an animal before…sometimes they can be big and look dangerous, but that's because they-" Angel stopped. In the distance, something crossed the trees. It was a quick black blur, but it somehow caught Angel's attention.

"What?" Phase asked after a moment.

"I saw something…"

"Maybe it was the animal…" She suggested. Angel saw it pass by again. This time, however, she saw an orange gleam streak across the black mass's back—it was the twilight sun's light reflecting off the surface of a metal object.

"That's no animal—come on!" She yelled, running after it. Phase followed her command, chasing after her. Angel sniffed the air, trying to catch the scent of whatever that black-metallic "thing" was, but she couldn't pick up a distinctly different smell other than the forest. She ran only where she guessed it was running.

"I think it's going this way!" Phase shouted behind her. Angel turned and followed Phase, who ran quickly ahead. Angel darted her eyes around, trying to search for the metal thing again, but she didn't see it.

"Are you sure, Phase?" Angel shouted ahead. Phase didn't respond. There was nothing Angel could do but run after her. For minutes they ran, dodging trees, rocks, roots and bushes. Angel felt she was being lead in arbitrary directions. Finally, they came to a wide clearing, and Phase stopped. Angel, panting hard, came to a stop a bit behind her, and rested with her hands on her knees. "Why did you…why did you…stop?" She asked, catching her breath, looking around and not seeing any sign of the black object. Phase looked back, only turning her head; she seemed to not be tired at all, despite the long run.

"Because, this is where we're getting picked up." She said casually.

"P…picked up?" Angel stood upright, tilting an ear and lifting an eyebrow.

"Yes. You and I are going on a little trip."

"A…trip? Phase…what are you talking about?" Angel questioned sharply.

"You'll find out soon. Get her!" Phase commanded, lowly and coldly. Angel's instincts told her something was wrong, but they came far too late. She felt something wrap around her body from behind, clasping her arms against her sides, and squeezing tightly. She glanced back, to see the dark-metallic figure behind her, and she slowly drew in a silent scream of dread. Her eyes were met with the familiar green eyes of a creature she thought was destroyed long ago. Her vision flashed; her lungs felt the impact of a hard fist, causing her to let go of her breath with a muted gasp. Her vision blurred, and faded to black.